[Guide] Etrian Odyssey Nexus - Portrait Mods

I made a guide in the past for modding portraits into an EO game before (EOU, but also works for EO4 and EO2U), but, while the process is mostly the same, there are a few key differences here and there, so I thought it was better to write a separate guide.

Here's a copypaste of (some of) the requirements from my previous guide:

- boot9strap CFW + Luma 3DS (latest version is recommended for both). You should already have both of these.
- GodMode9 (https://github.com/d0k3/GodMode9/releases - go to main page for installation instructions)
- Kuriimu (https://github.com/IcySon55/Kuriimu/releases)
- Enough free space to install the game almost twice.

Yup, no save editing required this time! Even though you can do it, it's no longer necessary because Nexus allows you to freely change your character's portrait.

===================================================== DUMPING THE GAME'S CONTENT ====================================================


This is the only lengthy or 'difficult' part, unless you suck at image editing like me and take a million years to get your portrait ready.

The first thing we want to do is to boot into Godmode9 in your 3DS. Once there, you have to find the game's content in order to dump it. If you have the digital version of the game (pirated or legit), you have to navigate to [A:] SYSNAND SD > TITLE > 00040000 > 001D4E00 (or 001D5200 if you have the European version) > CONTENT. Highlight 00000000.APP and press A. A few options should appear on the bottom screen, choose the first option (NCCH image options...). Now choose 'Mount image to drive'.

For the physical cartridge you have to navigate to [C:] GAMECART and highlight the .3ds file and press A. Select the option 'NCSD image options...' on the touch screen, now select 'Mount image to drive'. Finally, go inside the folder 'content0.game'.

Now go inside the 'romfs' folder and highlight the file 'MORIS.HPB', press L then do the same thing to 'MORIS.HPI'. After you see the letters of those two files turn yellow, press Y to copy them to the clipboard. Press B to return to the main menu, then go to [0:] SDCARD > GM9 (if you don't have the folder, you might want to create it) > OUT (same for this), then press Y inside to paste the files we copied earlier. This might take from 5 to 15 minutes depending on the model of your console (o3DS takes a lot longer than n3DS).

Turn your console off and take out the SD card, then use whatever you want to connect the card to your PC. Go to GM > OUT to copy both 'MORIS' files into your hard drive. Make sure you delete them off your SD card too, to save space.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, we can now completely skip the step of dumping the individual files (this applies to my older guide as well)! The newest versions of Kuriimu properly repack the MORI-.hpb files, so you don't have to worry about crashes or slowing down the game anymore! Alright, so before doing anything, make sure both the .hpi and .hpb files are on the same location, since the .hpi file tells Karameru where to look inside the .hpb file for the resources.


========================================================= PORTRAIT EDITING ==========================================================


Open Karameru and open the .hpi file with it, this will bring up a directory tree with every resource folder in the game. What we want is located in STEX > CHARACTER. This time ATLUS was kind enough to name the files after their corresponding class AND portrait, so it's much easier to locate the portrait we want to replace. Unfortunately for us though, there are no selectable unused portraits this time around, so we have to get rid of one of the original portraits and replace it with our custom one.

This is where it could seem like you need to do some annoying steps, but in reality there is nothing to worry about. If you right-click on a .stex file and select 'Edit in Kukki', you will notice that the skin, eyes and hair of the character are completely transparent, this is because of Nexus' character customization, but it won't be a problem for us. Sure, your custom portraits won't change regardless of the color settings you choose for them, but you can do so in any image editing program. Not to mention that this also allows you to change the colors of the armor/clothing of your character! Much better than using the game's color editor, don't you think?

Okay, so now comes the part where you have the liberty to do almost whatever you want with your mod. I can only give you a few tips for the image so that it appears correctly in your game:

- Press CTRL+E when viewing the portrait you want to replace. This will export the .stex file as a .png file that you can edit the way you like, or use it as a template for your new image.

- Your portrait image canvas has to be of 512x256, BUT make sure you're using the right half of it, otherwise your image might go behind the battle menus and such.

- Make sure it has transparency! This goes without saying, but just in case. Also note that at lower resolutions it's easier to spot any blank pixels that might have escaped the power of the Magic Wand tool if you used a non-transparent image for your custom portrait, so take your time to delete all of them, unless you're not bothered by them (lucky you!).

- If what you're doing is replacing the .stex file with a file from another EO game, make sure to name it exactly the same as the file you want to replace or the game might crash when looking for the old file.

- Inside each character folder you can see 4 files:

		• IG_BAT_[Class number]_[Class short name + number of portrait]A.STEX: This is the portrait itself.
		• IG_BAT_[Class number]_[Class short name + number of portrait]B.STEX: This is the color mask to fill the transparent parts.
		• IG_RES_[Class number]_[Class short name + number of portrait]A.STEX: This is the 'Battle Result' mini image (128x32).
		• IG_RES_[Class number]_[Class short name + number of portrait]B.STEX: This is the color mask for the 'Battle Result' image.

The mask files were the ones causing the crashes when you tried to edit portraits in EO5 and in Nexus, but fortunately, there is a way
to avoid that now. What you want to do is download this empty mask file and replace (right-click > Replace) BOTH masks of the original portraits:

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/t15gwtvywcwa5wr/Empty.STEX?dl=1

Copy it as many times as you need and rename it to match the name of the original mask files.

Okay, so let's assume you have all the .png files ready to insert, now it's time to edit the original .stex files. To do that, highlight the file you're replacing in Karameru, then right-click > Extract and save it to your Desktop or any easily accessible location. Open the .stex file in Kukki, now press CTRL+I to import your custom image. Save your file in Kukki, then go back to Karameru. This time, instead of clicking on Extract, you click on Replace and select the .stex file you just edited.

After you've done all the edits you deemed necessary, save in Karameru to apply your edits to the .hpb file. Congrats! You've successfully (... I hope) replaced one or more of the original portraits with one of your own!!

Now all we need is to insert the mod.


========================================================= INSERTING THE MOD =========================================================


We're going to make use of the fantastic LayeredFS function that Luma3DS 7.0+ provides. In your SD card, go to Luma > Titles (if the folder doesn't exist, create it). Here we need to create a folder with Nexus' Title ID, so name it 00040000001D4E00 if you have the US version or 00040000001D5200 if you have the EU version. Inside that folder you need to create one named romfs, which is where we'll place our edited MORIS.HPI and MORIS.HPB files.

Put your SD card in your 3DS again. Before turning it on, hold the Select button then turn it on; this will open Luma's settings. Make sure you have 'Enable game patching,' well, enabled. Now press Start to boot into your CFW.

The final step is to open your game and see your changes!


======================================================== Troubleshooting/FAQ ========================================================


Problem: Game boots fine, but when it tries to load the custom portraits, it freezes!
Solution: This might mean that the .hpb file got corrupted, this usually happens when transferring big files to an old SD card. Try to delete the files and transfer the edited files again. Another cause would be that you didn't properly replace the mask files with the empty one.

Problem: Game boots fine and doesn't freeze, but there are no changes!
Solution: This could be caused by three things. First, it could be that you forgot to enable game patching in Luma's configuration, so check if it's enabled. If this doesn't fix it, check that you have the correct game ID in Luma > Titles (in your SD card, of course). If none of that works, then try opening the .hpi/.hpb file in Karameru directly from your SD card and check if your custom images are there; you might have forgotten to save it, or the program glitched and didn't save properly. If the original images show up, then replace the files again in your PC, delete the MORIS files off your SD card and replace them with the new ones from your PC.

Problem: Game works, the changes are there, but my portraits look all corrupted!
Solution: This is an odd one. If you're using Photoshop to make your images and you render them with a high DPI number (why? it's a 3DS game...), try changing it to 72 DPI, which seems to be the default number.

Problem: My problem isn't listed here!
Solution: First off, give the guide another read, maybe there is something you missed. If the problem persists, try asking in the general. I visit it all the time and I might be able to help you.

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Question: Does this work without CFW?
Answer: It might be possible to use HANS to load a custom romfs file, but I've never used it so I can't really tell you anything about it. Sorry.

Question: Does this work in Citra?
Answer: In theory, if you manage to rebuild the ROM and make it not crash, then yes, but again, I have no idea how to do that; every past attempt at rebuilding the ROM had the same result for me: a beautiful black screen.

Question: Is there a way to revert the changes in case I'm using a physical copy of the game?
Answer: Just delete the folder inside Luma > Titles. You don't actually replace any of the original files, you only tell the game to load them off your SD card instead.

Question: How would we share our mods if we want to make them available?
Answer: The easiest and most user-friendly way would be to share the .hpi and .hpb files. If you don't want to upload large files, then you can just share the STEX files and force people to replace everything themselves.

Question: Does this new method work with past EO games? Namely EO4, EOU, EO2U and EO5.
Answer: Yes! It's much easier this way. Oh, and only EO5 and EON need to mess with the mask files, obviously.